With the proliferation of the use of mobile communications devices over the past several years has come a corresponding increase in the complexity of communications devices and their ability to handle complex tasks. Not coincidentally, the average size, resolution, and color depth of communications device displays has increased to support the ever-increasing demands of mobile communications device users.
The increased size, resolution, and color depth of mobile communications device displays has allowed users to use mobile communications devices for many tasks that were previously reserved for personal computers (PCs), and the like. Web browsing, for example, has become more user-friendly on devices with larger displays. While previous generations of devices supported web browsing, devices often displayed text only, and layout and images were not necessarily preserved. With newer devices, however, a web page can look nearly identical on both a mobile communications device, and on a display connected to a PC. Therefore, the amount of content that can be displayed on a mobile communications device display can be substantially identical to the amount of content that can be displayed on a display connected to a PC.
Mobile communications devices typically have many functions that can be customized by a user, a manufacturer, or an authorized technician. Once customized, these customized functions will often be applied uniformly, irrespective of the task for which the device is being utilized at any given time.
For example, many devices include a backlight capability that can be activated to make a device display easier to read. Backlighting a display has one major drawback, namely, that backlighting uses a great deal of energy and can therefore deplete battery charge relatively quickly. To address this problem, backlighting is typically adjustable to reduce the period of time for which backlighting is activated. For example, a backlight can typically be adjusted in the device preferences, or by a device manufacturer, to stay on for a set amount of time after a button on the device is pushed.
Other device functions and features, including, but not limited to, device sounds, power settings, and display settings, are often customizable as well. With respect to device sounds, a user can typically select or download audio clips and assign them to desired device functions such as ring tones, feedback tones, message waiting indicators, alerts, alarms, and the like.